


Stranger Than Fiction

by Alexandria (heartfullofelves)



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Characters Reading Fanfiction, Crack, Meta, Multi, Post-episode: s01e11 Champagne Supernova
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-14 21:11:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18484450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartfullofelves/pseuds/Alexandria
Summary: The clubhouse team makes a disturbing discovery.





	Stranger Than Fiction

They’d been working for hours without much progress. Even with the guys bringing Michael Guerin in to help with the murder investigation, they hadn’t got any insight into why their prime suspect, Noah Bracken, had killed so many people. The frustration in the bunker was palpable.

Deciding to go back to basics, Cam did a simple Google search. She’d bet anything that these guys hadn’t started with a few simple keywords. Sure enough, a few minutes of searching gave her some results. Frowning at her phone, she pushed her seat back from the table.

“What’s up?” said Alex Manes, turning around in his swivel chair. Following suit, Valenti and Guerin looked away from the files they’d been poring over all morning and glanced at Cam.

“I found something strange,” she explained, holding up her phone. “Actually, it’s a lot more mundane than some of the crap we’ve been uncovering. But it’s creepy as hell.” She stood up and handed her phone to the person standing closest to her, who happened to be Valenti.

He took the phone, frowning at it. “What am I looking at?”

“I actually bothered to Google ‘Roswell + aliens + murder’ and look at the most popular results,” she said, shaking her head at the three men she was working with. She was former military turned police; competence was a requirement in her books. “I found fanfiction. About people in this town. About _us_.”

Valenti’s eyebrows shot up, Guerin whistled, and Manes crossed the room to peer over Valenti’s shoulder at the phone.

“What are you saying?” Manes asked.

“I’m saying,” Cam said, putting her hands on her hips, “that there’s people out there writing stories about us. Very... intimate stories.”

“They _really_ like you two.” Clearing his throat, Valenti glanced at Manes and Guerin.

“What do you mean?” Manes frowned.

Guerin grinned. “I don’t know if I’m flattered or grossed out.” After a few moments of reading the screen, the smile faded, and he handed the phone back to Cam, who took it with an understanding nod. “Grossed out. I’m grossed out.”

Valenti got out his own phone and typed something into it before spending a good minute reading whatever was on there. “Wow,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “I, uh, didn’t know that was physically possible. And I’m a doctor.”

Manes looked at the group with his usual solemn expression. “This is a serious privacy and security issue. I need to look into it.” He went back to his computer, leaving the rest of them looking at their phones.

“There’s not a lot about the women in this town,” Cam pointed out. “Oh, here’s one. Huh. Did Isobel Evans and Rosa Ortecho have a thing?”

“No,” said Manes.

“Not that I’m aware of,” said Valenti. “But you never knew what Rosa was up to.”

“Maybe. We’re not actually sure,” said Guerin, causing the other guys to stare at him. “But that’s Isobel’s business, not ours.”

Cam eyeballed him. “This is a murder investigation, Guerin. Every detail is our business. If Isobel had a relationship with Rosa-”

He sighed. “Isobel didn’t kill her, you know that. It’s not relevant; Noah’s the killer.”

“Fine. Whatever you say.” She gave him a tight-lipped smile and went back to her phone.

Valenti chuckled at his own phone. “Is ‘sweetheart’ part of your vocabulary, Guerin?”

“Or ‘darling’?” Manes called over his shoulder.

Guerin groaned. “I need a drink.”

“Crap,” Cam muttered. “This one’s about Max and Liz. And me, apparently.” Her eyebrows went up. “These love triangles are getting out of hand.”

“I don’t know,” said Valenti. “I’m enjoying this one about me, Alex, and Michael.”

“Poor Maria,” Manes sighed from over in his corner. “She deserves more than just having snappy dialogue and being a device for the guy she slept with to realise how much he loves someone else.”

“Really.” Cam crossed her arms. “Please, tell me more.”

“All right,” Guerin said, picking up his cowboy hat and putting it on. “This has been great, a real valuable use of my time. Call me when you actually need my help.”

“Give DeLuca and the Wild Pony my regards,” Valenti shouted after him.

Guerin gave him a rude gesture and left. Noticing that a little bit of his usual swagger was missing, Cam couldn’t help but smirk.

Manes didn’t say anything; he seemed wrapped up in reading something that required a lot of his attention.

“You’re just letting Angry Cowboy walk out of here?” Valenti said. “Without giving him some speech about keeping what we’ve found a secret because the fate of the world depends on it?”

When Manes turned around at last, his eyes were red and his lips downturned.

Exchanging glances with each other, Cam and Valenti joined him at his desk. “Whoa, what’s wrong?”

Manes cleared his throat. “Just, uh, this one hit close to home.”

Squinting, Cam made out the words ‘Jesse’, ‘beating’, and ‘broken’ on the screen. She didn’t know anything about Alex’s life outside of his air force career, but she could take an educated guess at his relationship with his father. It would explain his determination to take control of Project Shepherd.

“We shouldn’t be reading these,” Manes said. “Our curiosity got the better of us.”

Valenti put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Think you’re right. I’ll never be able to use the bathroom at the Wild Pony again.”

Manes chuckled at that, meeting Valenti’s disgusted yet amused look with one of his own. “At least you don’t have a crush on your reformed high school bully.”

“Yeah.” Valenti shifted his gaze to one of the other screens, pretending that he wasn’t clenching his jaw or blinking more times per minute than was necessary.

Cam patted both Manes and Valenti’s shoulders. “Right. I think I’m gonna go join Guerin in drinking this out of my memory.”

The guys let her leave without a fuss, still not making eye contact with each other. Cam decided not to mention the faint blush on Valenti’s cheeks, as fun as it would be to see him flustered. In her experience, meddling was never welcome, although she had encountered a humorous story just before that had handled it well.

As she walked to her cop car, her handcuffs escaped their pocket and jingled against her thigh. Hmm, she thought. Maybe she could recreate one particular story.


End file.
